OVERCOMING THE CULTURAL DIFFERENCES : PARABLE AS A MEANS OF INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE

Purpose. This article attempts to investigate the ways to overcome negative after-effects of intercultural communication. Methodology and theoretical results. To avoid the negative after-effects of intercultural communication caused by the clash of different reality tunnels, it is necessary to go beyond the framework of the specific symbolical territory, which is seen as the only true reality. Expanding the horizons of life, going beyond the boundaries of a personal reality tunnel can be achieved, in particular, by using parables. Acquaintance with parables helps to extend the set of the world perception models and to change the positions of the communication process participants. Parables act as intermediaries between people of different cultures and mentalities. Owing to its archetypical form, parable becomes one of the most popular narratives illustrating deep and multi-faceted truths that sometimes cannot be expressed by any other way. Parable serves as an open and flexible model of the world and a model of an individual "I self". This model helps people to constitute themselves as a part of their world. Parable requires to reject its interpretation in the oppositions inherent in a given culture and to reconsider the very way of understanding. Rejection of the oppositions provides the possibility of perceiving the world as integrity, unity in diversity, helps to overcome one-sided picture of the inner world of a man and his life in society. Understanding of a parable works towards changing personal position, and human creative nature is actualized. Conclusion. Parables uniquely reflect the real world and contribute to personal understanding of reality. Parables are successfully transplanted into different cultures operating as heritage of a culture-recipient and as a connecting link, which optimizes an intercultural dialogue.


Introduction
Rapidly developing processes of globalization, in the context of societies moving from modernity toward postmodernity, generate more and more contradictory effects [27; 30; 33].Since the last century -societies around the globe have been interwoven into a complex fabric of interdependent economic, technological, political, and social relationships.This interdependency is a salient characteristic of the world that you presently live in, and the future promises even greater interconnectivity, requiring increased cultural knowledge and language abilities‖ [31, p. 2].The postmodern era demands a new paradigm for relationship between countries and nations, a new geopolitical world structure that satisfies the need for security.Societies, which have distinctive geographic features, history, traditions, languages, religions, and cultural practices, have to coexist within a single information space.They interact and influence each other through intercultural communication [17,22].
The peculiarity of every society affects on attitudes towards many issues -human rights, political regime, trade, environment, personal relationships, etc. [3,18,32].Cultural features may cause serious collision, taking into account the fact they are more stable and rigid than either economic or political ones.Thus, it is clear, that along with the economy and politics, intercultural communication is an important factor for regulation of both internal life and relationships between countries [6,25].
Intercultural communication as a symbolic, interpretative, transactional, and contextual process [26] provides interaction among culturally diverse people.During intercultural communication the sociocultural experience has been transferring and assimilating; the value orientations of interacting partners have been changing; and new personal qualities have been forming.In this process various vectors of sociocultural interaction do not exclude Антропологічні виміри філософських досліджень, 2013, вип. 3.

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© Danylova T. V., 2013 but correlate each other.Dynamics of intercultural communication appears or manifests in the continuous developmental growth of understanding within various areas and at different levels of social life (civilizational, national, intergroup, and interpersonal).As a result of the intensification of prolonged contacts between different cultures, people realize that the world is much smaller than they previously imagined, and to preserve it the absolute value in the diversity of world cultures has to be recognized.It is quite clear that such kind of contacts may not be established all at once and in getting acquainted with representatives of a foreign culture people may experience confusion, fear, mistrust, and even aggression [19].
Conflict, in particular, may be caused by a person's individual reality tunnel [35] and his or her perception of the world as seen through a certain set of filters.The world is rich with sensory manifestations, but people usually realize only a few.Even then, these are filtered through individual experience, culture, language, beliefs, values, interests, and assumptions.Everyone creates his or her own unique reality, and all their actions are based on this personal model of the world, which is recognized as the only one -true reality‖ [29].
Intercultural communication is often carried out under conditions of significant cultural differences and, among other things, is dependant on the communicative competence of its participants.These differences essentially influence the success of the communicative process.Intercultural communication is characterized by its participants' use of special language options and discursive strategies, which are different from those usually used when communicating within the common cultural group [13].It should be noted that specific implementation of the communicative competence is culturally conditioned.At the same time it is conditioned by the unique and individual experience of each person.It follows that in communication as a process of exchanging messages meanings are constantly recreated, since they are not identical even for representatives of a single culture.These meanings in communication are further complicated by the interaction of different cultures and different languages.
Usually, people communicate each other by means of verbal and nonverbal interaction [2,28].In the process of verbal communication certain filters and barriers, formed by so called given reali-ty, come in its way and do not enable the meaning of a message to reach the recipient's consciousness.During the transmission, information may be partially distorted or in part lost, as far as the process of verbal construction generates the deformation in the meaning of the message.Moreover, only a small fraction of information has been passing from person to person via words.
The reminder is through means of nonverbal communication, which may also vary between countries or cultures and does not always contribute to accurate transmission of a given message [29].Along with a cultural environment, there is an educational environment where one creates his or her own system of culture, which in turn may conflict with other confusing and sometimes incomprehensible systems.Thus, in short, intercultural issues may lead to problematic interpersonal relationships.
A person lives in a world filled with diverse cultural values, which are sometimes at peace and sometimes in conflict.F. Kluckhohn [23,24] considered value orientations to be the result of solutions to similar issues by people with different cultural backgrounds.According to her, the system of values is a worldview of each certain culture including such fundamental human issues as innate predisposition, man's relation to nature, time dimension, valued personality type, and modality of relationship.Different value orientations in intercultural encounters may clash to the extent at which conflicts arise causing states of anxiety, and even aggression.

Purpose
This study attempts to give a partial answer to question posed in the introduction: what are the ways to overcome these negative after-effects of intercultural communication caused by the clash of different reality tunnels?

Methodology
To answer this question it seems appropriate to use an integrative approach [12] that reveals and reconciles various specific-cultural human beings' characters and normative notions of their behaviour.Within this approach it is generally recognized that different systems of values do not exclude, but successfully complement and enrich each other.

Theoretical results
One-sided perception caused by cultural and historical differences can be overcome only by integrating other models of thinking into the world of our perceptions, as well as by acceptance of other "rules" of relations between people, including those, which have arisen under other cultural and historical conditions.It is necessary to model a new status-and role-frame of communication or, better yet, to eliminate it.For positive intercultural dialogue people should go beyond their own emic reality, which was generated by their coding system or the structure of metaphors and was translated by means of language, arts, mathematics or other symbolic systems.
The perception of the world is its description.Anyone interacting with a child acts as his or her teacher, constantly describing the world until the child begins to perceive the world as it has been described [15].Thus, people learn to transform and create their own flow of perception in accordance with the culturally adopted description.World as description becomes their supreme reality.The main reason for forgetting of the child's holistic perception of the world is that it does not correspond to the structure of the culturally adapted description, and therefore people have no terms to interpret it [34].
Furthermore, people live in a world of infinite information signals.When they structure this information environment, the world becomes meaningful to them.If people are aware of the fact that they program their emic reality, they become free in their actions and their perception of the world.Thus people can move beyond their symbolic territory, that is, cease to be only "this or that" person (Ukrainian, German, Buddhist, Christian, liberal, conservative, etc.), can stop identifying themselves with this or that role.One of the ways for such kind of changing conscious states is using a parablesense-creating existential-symbolic phenomenon, which is beyond a given culture and is rooted in unconsciousness [4].Parable helps to get rid of collection of ideas, concepts, mistaken notions and dreams that our mind usually generates, and allows the individual to experience the current moment, -here and now‖ in all its true fullness.
Firstly, we will try to determine a parable's place in the structure of "sciencephilosophyreligion".Science verbalizes knowledge, which has not been verbalized yet but has such a potential.Basing on the postulates of science and using its methodology, individuals get the same results, regardless of their nationality, religious affiliation, type of character, habits, and preferences.Of course, we should not forget that science offers not an absolutely true, but a relatively true view of the world.V. Nalimov states that using some analogy to Gödel theorems, it can be claimed that no one fixed extension of the scientific axioms does not make science complete, since there will always exist new truths, which can be expressed by its means, but cannot be deduced from it.This contributes to the further development of science and the emergence of new scientific paradigms, which are also relatively true [11, р. 91-92].
As for philosophy, it seems reasonable to analyze a philosophical system of a certain thinker.The answers to questions about the ultimate foundations of being will be different in every philosophical system, depending on the level of -de-struction‖ of common worldview, the level, which S. Kierkegaard called "desperation‖.According to S. Kierkegaard, -a person who claims that life is a vale of sorrow and that a fate of a man on the earth is to grieve, to mourn, has a joy beyond himselfas well as a person who sees the meaning of life in a pleasure and a joy, has a sadness beyond himself; joy can thus sweep over the first one, as well as sadness -the second one.Both views are based on the external conditions that are beyond the man and his will; sadness and joy alike beyond human power; any kind of worldview based on the external conditions, which are not dependent on the individual is… despair‖ [7, p. 315].The answer depends on the depth of person's Self, where philosopher forces to seek his own spiritual basis of existence, which in his system he asserts as general principles of the universe.
Religion deals with foundations that cannot be verbalized (by the word of man, but the word of God only) and falsified.For their comprehension one needs neither mental exercises, nor selfreflection, but faith.They are too deep to say about them, they can be specified only allegorically.The parable, which can be verbalized but cannot be falsified, often acts as a connecting link, a bridge between philosophy and religion.Philosophical foundations are the boundary of the structures that can be verbalized, however they are not perceived directly in the intentional state.Generally, people perceive and interpret the world within their own models of reality, which have been created by the language and the other symbolic systems.They explain the reality in the oppositions inherent in the culture they were socialized.However, the human mind is continual and the language is discrete.In the process of communication people actively use the formal logic, but -Gödel challenge‖ is that human thinking is richer than its deductive forms [11].Natural language serves as a material for another language, that is nothing contrary to the primary, but -unlike it, full of ambiguity: where is the verification tool, where is the dictionary which you might approach this secondary -inexhaustible, unfathomable, symbolic language with … that is the language of the multiple meanings‖ [1, p. 353].
A parable as a cultural phenomenon peculiar to all mankind serves as a means of approaching to the deep structure [16], which is directly connected with the thinking and gives different interpretations regardless of the languages of culture.Parable overcomes the discreteness of language.A boundary of philosophizing is a symbol, which can be indicated, but cannot be revealed.Interacting in a parable's plot, symbols become protagonists.If a parable is a system of symbols' interactions, then its meaning is not confined to the narrative.For understanding a parable one should abandon its interpretation in the oppositions inherent in a given culture.The meaning of a parable splits into a directassociated with a situation, which is described and mythologizedand depth -associated with a change of a recipient's state of mind.A situation described in a parable is transformed into an archetype of a culture [10].Parables give transcendental freedom from conventional -rules of the game‖.Along with the unusual brightness and poetic quality presentation, parables contain something unpredictable, unexpected.The usual train of thoughts and desires suddenly appears in a totally different light.The other way of thinking, which previously seemed unusual, becomes close and understandable to a recipient.This change of position is one of the most important functions of a parable.
In the process of interpretation of a parable as a symbol, and clearly say, as a system of interaction of symbols, one needs personal freedom, which entails personal responsibility.Comprehension of parables is the way to creativity and self-actualization.Parable can be compared to the great work of art, which -like a dream with all its expression never interprets itself and never has an unequivocal interpretation.None of dreams says: -You are obliged‖ or -This is the truth‖; it reveals the image like the nature grows the plant, and we are given the opportunity to draw our own conclusions from this image‖ [14, p. 196].
Understanding of a parable is an existential act.A parable is a sense-creating text directed at the deep structures of a recipient's consciousness.The meaning of a parable cannot be interpreted by efforts of intellect or by common sense; it cannot be represented as a rational formula.In the process of a parable's understanding one should release it of the context to comprehend its unconditional reality.It is not a stable reality but a dynamic trend.In the process of realizing of the parable any attempt to fix the intention of consciousness leads to false results [10].Every time we understand the same parable anew, and every time we find new meanings.A meaning of a parable in a latent condition exists in our inner world, and an entry into a field of symbols awakens, reproduces a deep meaning of a parable in a recipient's consciousness.A man finds himself alone and tries to look inward.While eliminating all external contexts, one must get rid of external necessity, of external laws.He can no longer think like that: -God, I thank you that I am not like other peoplerobbers, evildoers, adulterersor even like this tax collector.I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.‖ [ Luke 18,[11][12].A parable contributes to the revision of a way of understanding, and this enables to judge ourselves, to find basic foundations of our being, because the main issue, according to T. Mann, is -the problem of human being (since everything else is just sprouts and nuances of this problem…)‖ [8, p. 611].
A man is multifaceted, ambivalent; such as many-sided, ambiguous a parable is.A perfect example of a many-sided personality was given by H. Hesse in -Steppenwolf‖.-Guidance in the building up of personality‖ can be surely called the Parable about Parable.In the movement of chess pieces on the board we see the breakup the person's unity into many selves.Everyone who has experienced the falling apart of his or her Self, can rearrange these parts at any time and obtain variety of plots in the -life game‖.-The splitting apart of the seeming unity of the person into these many pieces виміри філософських досліджень, 2013, вип. 3.

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© Danylova T. V., 2013 passes for madness; science has invented the name schizophrenia for it.Science is right in this as so far as there can naturally be no multiplicity without leadership, without bringing under control a certain ordering and grouping.On the other hand, it is wrong in this that it believes possible only a onetime, binding, life-long ordering of the many under-I's.This error of science has many unpleasant consequences; its worth lies solely in this, that the state-assigned teachers' and educators' work is made easier and it appears to save on thinking and experimentation‖ [20, p. 144].
C.G. Jung emphasized that such kind of splitting refers to unconsciousness and means the transformation of integrated Self into variety of possible selves.Such a phenomenon the analyst explained by the concept of the collective unconscious -the soul, which is the matrix and the precondition for consciousness [14].The synthesis of consciousness and the collective unconscious is carried out by symbol.In the development of consciousness symbols dissociate from the experience; they turn into dogmas of religion and philosophical categories, which cannot be experienced directly.For overcoming any variety of selves authorities use ideologeme, which frees the recipient from personal responsibility.A parable does not provide absolute truth; it only suggests and implies ambiguity of interpretations.A parable is perceived many times, and each time its meaning is interpreted in a new way correlating with further symbolic linkages [10].
A parable makes it possible to extend the set of patterns of perceiving the world, which in many cases are the useful tools were created by human mind and non-identical to non-verbal reality.Each of these patterns requires us to consider certain information the most important and absolutely true and respect only a certain class of signals, which passed through our filters [36].Everything else can be not only ignored, but also denied.If person's concepts, attitudes, and ideas do not correspond to reality, he or she often adjusts the reality to match the stereotypes.This form of the protection and the internal resistance is very stable and almost insurmountable, people do not listen to themselves, but to -the voice of mother, father, to the voice of government, authorities, power, tradition, etc.‖ [9, p. 112].This -always right‖ game may be applicable to all spheres of human life.
In general, people protect their concepts, atti-tudes, and beliefs from the checking by reality, considering this reality as unreliable or interpreting it by their own way [35].Such a reaction indicates that in the field of human relations there is not only one objective reality, but also a variety of them, which we perceive through the filters of our concepts and attitudes.The situation becomes critical and even dangerous when our concepts are not controlled by reality and turned into a goal in itself.
In response to any objection the opponents give their own answer, the only right one, which supposedly confirms the validity of their views.In such cases the communication suspends.This is the typical reaction of the resistance to new information, which can be overcome by expanding the horizons of life, by going beyond the boundaries of a personal reality tunnel, in particular, with the help of a parable.
A parable as existential-symbolic phenomenon is a fact of inner experience, and like a true symbol expresses the form of unknown nature [14].A parable's sense is beyond the boundaries of communicative (sigh) situation.Parable's characters devoid of external features and own nature, being introduced to us not as objects of observation, but as subjects of ethical choice.In the process of reception of the parable we get rid of this husk, which hide unconditional meanings that cannot be reduced to their sign expression.This is a kind of situation when we can say that the language kills the thought.A deep meaning of a parable is not displayed by means of sign (direct) communication; being fixed it is no longer able to develop.A parable is necessary for actualization of latent meanings of human existence.-The poverty‖ of signifier, despite the multiplicity of meanings not identical with the content, enables to go through a lot of -why?‖ of the common sense and reject the very way of understanding inherent in a given culture.A deep meaning of a parable contributes to changes in a recipient's state of mind [4].
A parable requires to refuse of its interpretation in oppositions inherent in a given culture.Refusal to oppositions provides the possibility of perceiving the world as integrity, unity in diversity, helps to overcome one-sided picture of inner world of a man and his life in society both.A parable is a translation of an archetype in an acceptable form for each given culture (that is, in a language of culture), herewith archetypes are the basis for culture, although they themselves are beyond the culture.A parable is a kind of a -scoop‖, through which a meaning is extracted within human consciousness.This -scoop‖ is the same for all, but mined meaning will be different for various people [11].
-Respect for other cultures is one of the key needs in communication.No one should look down on those with different customs, languages or cultures, but try to look through their eyes and to understand, what and how they are seeing the world‖ [19, p. 3].A parable avoiding attack against person's system of values, demonstrates the onesidedness of his or her position.There are numerous possible interpretations; the meanings of the parables cannot be reduced to the single invariant, thus enabling the recipient to perceive the parable as the part of his or her own experience.The use of moral implications in the particular culture does not exhaust the meaning of the parable.According to U. Eco, -each epoch can think that as if it possesses the canonical meaning of a work, however, it is enough to expand the boundaries of history a bit in order to turn a unified meaning into multiple one, and -closed‖ work into -opened‖ [1, p. 370].
Due to a parable a recipient can change his or her usual position and learn mental models of other cultures.Such a rethinking has a great impact on self-perception.Straightness of logical thinking mostly does not help to overcome difficulties and may even confuse solution to a problem.On the contrary, a parable suggests unexpected, but successful solutions, which help to become free and to overcome conflicts occurring because of habitual behavior.Understanding of a parable works towards changing personal position, and human creative origin is actualized.When a person is aware of relative nature of cultural norms, the change in position occurs not due to loss of personal values, but due to understanding that there may be other values [12].
A parable helps people do not bind themselves to any of definitions in accordance with their status and role, but to feel their inner unity, be aware of themselves as the integrity, that is, -just to be‖.This changing state of mind is perfectly illustrated by Taoist parable -Keys of Tao‖: -Many notable people wanted to learn from Lao Tzu, but it was impossible.People were so specific oriented and Lao Tzu was very natural, he was the Nature itself.To learn from the Nature one should be Emptiness or Wholeness.Be All-in-One.Otherwise one will dissect the Nature.
They say, when Chuang Tzu came to Lao Tzu, the last said: Great! Did you come to be my Master?Chuang Tzu replied: Come on!Why we cannot just be?And he touched the feet of Lao Tzu.That one screamed: What are you doing?Chuang Tzu said: Do not put anything between us.If I feel I must touch your feet, no one can stop me: either you or me.We just observe how it happens!‖[5, p.14].
Parable acts like a mirror, which reflects all the ambiguity of the human nature.People can compare their thoughts and experience with that what is meant in the narrative, and grasp the sense, which at the moment corresponds to their own mental structures.They do not perceive parable's allusions as the attack on their own system of values.As a result, control by filters and semantic maps is diminished.Parables, which are free from recipients' direct life experience, help them to choose a certain distance to take a different look at their own conflicts, since to solve the problem one should rise above it.
The most acute conflicts in the communication process are triggered by different value systems [21].These conflicts are almost impossible to resolve, they could be only settled for a certain time.People find it very difficult to give up their principles of life, spiritual values, and individual mythologies, despite the fact that none of this helps them to resolve conflicts constructively.This abandonment seems identical to self-denial.A frontal attack on the basic system of values often provokes the same kind of defense.This defense can be reduced by a mediator such as a parable, which tells us not about a particular person, but about an abstract character of a narrative plot.Parable is a kind of a mediator, which unites oppositions.Perceiving it, recipients express their thoughts.This would be much more difficult to do without this intermediary.
In a situation of interpersonal or intercultural conflict parables can be used as models, which reflect conflicts and offer possible solutions or indicate the after-effects of individual attempts to resolve conflicts.They are dynamic models that can be interpreted differently, applying to our own situation.They offer unusual responses to usual conflict patterns of behaviour.Acquaintance with виміри філософських досліджень, 2013, вип. 3.

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© Danylova T. V., 2013 them helps to expand our own set of concepts, principles, values, and ways of resolving conflicts, as well as to overcome the emotional barriers and stereotypes of other people's way of thinking and feeling [12].
Getting acquainted with a parable as alternative concept, which can be either accepted or rejected, the conflicting sides try to understand each other.Despite the opposite views of life, they may have a point of contact.It is clear that a change of behavior does not occur immediately.Opposite positions are need to be checked to find out their acceptability or unacceptability to the life concept of sides.To do this, a person for a while identifies himself or herself with the opponent, tries to understand the other point of view, and verifies what is acceptable and helpful in a real situation, as well as what is not appropriate and should be rejected.In other words, interlocutors need time before they manage to a successful conclusion.

Conclusion
Using parables as a means of optimizing the intercultural communication, we can see a transformation of process participants' positions.The meaning of the parable is rarely clear and unambiguous: it depends entirely on its interpretation and understanding.In parables imagination finds the field of activity it lacks in a daily life, where the common sense prevails.Parables uniquely reflect the real world and contribute to personal understanding of reality.Thus, parables act as intermediaries in the relationship between representatives of different cultures.
The participants of intercultural communication suddenly realize that each of them has a unique experience their, own way of posing a problem and resolving it.The conversation takes on a new meaning.A parable contributes to human adaptation, which is an essential precondition to facilitate a non-directive communication process.
A parable has not only -horizontal‖, but mainly -vertical‖ structure, which is based on the archetype.Its meaning is penetrating a parable through and through, it is in front of our eyes, but we loose it every time when we try to find it within one level.A parable is paradoxical, and it is necessary to perceive it not only -horizontally‖, but also -verti-cally‖, since within the framework of one culture it is difficult to integrate the worldviews, which often contradict each other.A parable is a kind of test, which hides beneath the veil of Isis the great truths and the mysterious code of the spirit.
A parable contributes to the awareness that in the very fact of cultural diversity successful ways to overcome unfavorable peculiarities of human behavior and methods of conflict resolution can be found.Integrating different cultures, parable represents something timeless, eternal, which allows great self-awareness, self-expression, and self-help.The reason for using a parable in the process of intercultural communication lies in the fact that a parable is an archetypal form, and an archetype is the background of any culture.That is why parables are successfully transplanted into different cultures operating as heritage of a culturerecipient and as a connecting link, which optimizes an intercultural dialogue.